


Father and Son

by Lovina



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Canon Compliant, Father-Son Relationship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-30
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-09-28 19:09:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20430989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lovina/pseuds/Lovina
Summary: Lunoct Celebration Days || Day 1: Happy Birthday, Noctis!Regis, as King, has a lot on his plate: war, duty and even a prophesy, yet he manages those fairly well.Isn't it odd then that Regis, the father, can't make some time for his one and only duty?





	1. How to nurture Light

Dejection.

The face his son briefly flashed after declining his quiet invitation to expend the afternoon together had definitely been one of dejection.

Naturally, Noctis had masked it as soon as it appeared, quick enough so that it didn’t linger on his mind, and he, who was too wrapped around the unflattering military news that reached him that morning, had accepted the answer despite a more perceptive part of his subconscious registering the detail. It wasn’t unexpected then why, after reciting a matter-of-factly rundown of his schedule to Noctis, their breakfast had turned uncomfortably silent, with what he now understood had been an unvoiced truth lingering heavy in the air.

The pregnant silence had been the reason why he had given it a thought afterwards in the first place, and now that he took the time to review what was say and done that morning, he felt ashamed of how blind he had been to all the signals that were clearly present.

Regis briefly rubbed his brown once the eyes around the ongoing council meeting turned to a member sitting far from him on the table, and seized the moment to dig further into his memory.

As expected, some details still didn’t catch up.

Because… when was the last time he made-up a bedtime story for Noctis? How many meals had he skipped with him in the last month? When was the last time his son had shown unannounced in his office? He honestly couldn’t remember, and the realization sent a shiver down his back.

Had he truly been _neglecting_ his son? When King Mors still ruled, Regis had been involved early on external affairs. Theirs was a relationship grounded on war and duty; they had always been King and successor Prince, and while he never felt particularly close to Mors, the man, they bonded over a shared understanding of what was truly important: Eos.

That had been Mors and Regis. The same couldn’t be said for Regis and Noctis.

Having been firsthand witness of the horrors of the enemy, tasted defeat and felt the sorrow of trials yet to come, Regis set his mind on giving Noctis a life different to the one he had had.

It was not Noctis’ place to be at the center of a war at his tender age. All he ever wanted for him was to learn, love and smile; to experience life at its fullest, for as long as he could allow him. Thus, being a fatherly figure to him, especially to compensate since Aulea's absence, had been his priority early on, and he had managed fairly well until Niflheim started creeping closer again.

_That is just how things are_, says a voice in his head, and Regis finds himself somewhat agreeing. Everything he did, he did it to protect Noctis, his future...

…and everyone else’s.

As long as he were King, the crown weighed on him with responsibilities he needed to take care of if he wanted the best for his son. It was the right thing to do. He _was_ justified.

That's what King Regis thought.

But Regis, the father, wasn’t blind to his excuses.

No matter how grounded on logic, reason, loyalty and sacred duty those were, there was no good enough of an excuse for placing those sad, resigned eyes on his young son.

The king would continue to rule, but the father... where had he gone? Sitting on a chair, forever mourning time lost? Now that he listened to him, it was obvious he had neglected himself, as much as he had his son. He yearned to do so much more for him-- _with_ him.

To see that carefree smile on his son’s face would be his ultimate reward.

The focus around the table shifted again, and the meeting moved onto a review on public affairs that Regis was already updated on, so he allowed his mind to completely muffle out their voices, free to wander further away.

Lately, dinner had been the only moment he and Noctis shared together through the day.

Some days, when emergencies demanded, they could not even have that. Regis was too busy leading a country, and Noctis was too busy attending elementary school. Soon, his son would be hitting puberty, wouldn’t he? There he would start grown fast, too fast, and for a moment Regis entertained himself imagining what kind of man his son would become. With the way things were going however, he was afraid all that growth would happen away from his eyes.

If he didn’t pay him enough attention, he could soon end up dinning with a stranger at his table.

Waking out of his pessimistic trance, Regis shushed and chastised himself. Would Aulea be here, she would do as much. “_Look at you. Aren't you overthinking it? That was never your strong point, Regis. Acting on your hunches has always earned you better results,_” he could hear her remind him between chuckles.

Aulea always knew him best, in ways nobody ever did.

Making up his mind, he focused again in the ongoing discussion, decided to wrap things up as quickly as possible.

Today, he would expend quality time with his son.

_It’s been far too long since._

* * *

Noctis sat on the grass, yawning under the shade of a few trees at the park outside the citadel, finally unsupervised.

He had managed to trick his chaperone into thinking he needed to practice nature drawing for art class at the castle’s garden, only to leave his tools abandoned under a bush and make his escape from the stuffy atmosphere of the citadel through his secret exit—a set of selected glass panels with loose, rusty screws. With each of his successful escapes came the taste of a thrilling sense of adventure, and he sometimes wondered if it was anything similar to how his father had felt when he went out with his friends outside the city, many years ago.

Like he once told him in his bed-time stories.

That, too, that had been many years ago.

Sighing, Noctis relaxed against the bark of one of the trees, its roots curved enough for him to lay at the right angle and be cradled without risking a stiff neck. Comfortable as he was, it wasn't hard to brush some flecks of hair aside to take in the soothing beauty of the trees surrounding him; the warm light of the sun seeping through the leaves, the lazy shadows they made around him, dancing along with the movement of the wind.

This was something he could do all day: sleeping against his favorite resting tree, away from the suffocating stiff attention of the castle’s personal. Just him, the sound of chirping birds and the wind caressing his hair and skin.

Sometimes it felt a bit cold at given moments, though.

And suddenly humid.

Actually, it was cold _because_ it was humid, and only in this one specific spot on his face, too. Had a raindrop fallen from the tree leaves and he hadn't noticed?

Opening his eyes, Noctis' view was greeted by an endless sea of black.

“Woaaaah!” he yelped, tumbling back in the grass. From his place, flat atop the dirt ground some steps from where he had been sleeping, he saw the face of his offender.

Umbra’s black fur shined healthily under the afternoon light, the white mark on his snout bending around his cheerful expression. His wet nose was leaning close to where Noctis’ face had been moments before, and If he had noticed Noctis’ outburst, the dog feigned ignorance.

“Umbra! How did you find me? ...Ah, your nose…right, never mind.” Noctis said, the laugh in his voice still laced with lingering drowsiness. Getting up on his knees, Noctis patted Umbra's head, reassuring himself of his presence. “You scared me.”

Giving him a whine and a lick to his hand, Umbra sat back, waiting patiently for Noctis’ full attention as he finished scrubbing his eyes awake.

If the dog was here, it could only mean…

“Did Luna send something back already?” excitement filled Noctis face. Taking out his shared journal, he readied himself to read Luna’s handwriting under cover of the tree’s shadow. As he reached the latest entry page, his cellphone ringtone started beeping, and the caller’s ID on the screen had him on his feet in an instant.

Sliding the screen to answer, Noctis' hurriedly started to make his way back to the castle. He had barely time to catch his breath. “Dad?!”

“May I know where are you right now, son?” Noctis started jogging.

“I was just…the garden…” dammit, had he been discovered already? His mind razed for a decent lie, but if his father was the one calling, his chances of getting away with it were pretty low. He couldn’t just simply lie to him, not over a call right after his nap.

The small laugh on the other side of the line made him stop his jog completely, Umbra watching him with curiosity at his side. “You fell asleep on the gardens, didn’t you? I’ll be over there in a moment, don’t move.” The call ended, and move he did, shoving the phone back into his pocket and clutching the red diary hard to his chest while running through the small tunnels and alleys that shortcutted his secret road towards the castle. As he entered through the glass panels, he saw his father reach his chaperone side, exchanging a few words.

“This will have to wait, Umbra. Wait for me in my room, I will catch up later, ok?” Tucking the journal back into Umbra’s pouch, he dismissed him, approaching his father with a practiced calm he didn't currently feel.

“Father.”

The chaperone excused herself and went away, leaving King and Prince alone to talk. Alone. That in itself was a rarity, one that made his heart stir uneasily.

“Did something happen?”

“Yes." Looking up to his father, Noctis felt paralyzed by the intensity of his gentle stare. “Something changed indeed.”

* * *

Walking merely a meter behind his father's steps, Noctis felt his uneasiness start to waver. If he wasn’t in trouble for sneaking out, why had he come to look specifically for him? Willing his fingers to relax, Noctis considered his words carefully before asking. “Where are we going?”

Regis slows down his pace to match his own stride, walking now at his side. The creases on father’s brown softened slightly.

“When was the last time you and I used the training grounds together?”

Noctis doesn’t reply and Regis takes his eyes off him, seemingly gloomier.

“Too long, isn’t it?”

“…I’m still not allowed training.”

Sometimes, he wondered if he would ever be allowed training again.

Truth to be told, it had only been two years since his injury with the Marilith, but he had been already allowed to start participating in PE at school as early as last year, too. Training, however, was still off-talk.

The doctors never outright said it, but he understood that they were scared of him reopening his wounds somehow, claiming that the possibility of the involvement of the scourge and Oracle magic could have a negative reaction to his own magic. It was a risk they weren't willing to take, they said. What they didn't know, was that Luna had already dismissed that possibility, but that was something Noctis couldn't disclose to them.

Back when the incident happened, it had been Oracle Silva who had personally supervised his injury in Tenebrae, where it had progressed with good results, and even as he and his father had to abruptly return to Insomnia, his wound kept healing with the help of what he knew was magic, days after the announcement of the Oracle’s passing.

It was only because he showed signs of a generally weakened physique upon returning that Clarus had deemed it unwise for him to continue his training with his father, indefinitely postponing his armiger and magic inductions.

He would soon be _eleven_, and his weapon capabilities were flimsy at best, while he still didn’t have the basic grasp on warp and elemental magic down. His dad had been way ahead of him at his age, hadn't he?

And here he couldn’t even get some sort of…

_Trust. _

Trust that he was already fine and ready to become stronger. If only his dad could see how much he had progressed...

The weight of a hand on his shoulder took him out of his thoughts, looking up to see Regis smile warmly at him. He realized they had walked quite far from the gardens, to a section of the castle that seemed vaguely familiar.

In front of them, stood a door he hadn't seen in some time.

Extending his arm, his father pushed the doors to the Crownsguard training hall open, it’s creakings magnified by the echo in the empty room.

* * *

“I am not imposing on you, am I? If you would rather do something else…”

“That’s not it.”

He knows better than staring, but something in Noctis stops him from looking away from the long, graying strands hanging over his father’s eyes. Would this be fair?

“If you are scared of losing against this old man, you can say so, Noctis.”

He scowls, but it comes out looking more like a pout, and Regis cheeky smile grows wider.

That was exactly the opposite of what he meant, and he was certain Regis knew as much, but now his dad was taking the soccer ball from the supply cabinets, bouncing it on his good leg before dropping it to stop it under his shoe with a swift stomp.

“Don’t think I’ll be going easy on you, my son."

If Noctis was to have it his way, that wouldn't be changing anytime soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a very special fanfic for me, as it was the very first one I drafted, written before the game even came out. It took me 3 years to finally flesh it out, but here it is! Forgive me if the grammatic seems a little wonky or stiff at times, I tried to fix and edit it as much as I could but, no matter how many time I reread it, there's still something... odd on it? Hopefully is doesn't come across as bad as I feel it is. Tell me what you think of it!
> 
> As you can see, some parts are heavily influenced by the Brotherhood anime and Platinum demo too, with some sprinkles of A King's Tale. Noctis' and Regis' bond is a special one I wanted to touch upon, and when Carbuncle commented that Noctis wanted to play soccer with his dad on the demo, I knew what I had to write about.
> 
> Also, don't worry about Umbra, he is having the time of his life spreading fur all over Noctis' bedsheets. There's still an epilogue coming, and it will be about what Luna sent in the notebook! This fic is part of the Lunoct celebration days, right? :p
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	2. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After expending an afternoon with his dad, Noctis gets some time to read Luna's message.

“Your Majesty! Excuse my interruption. The Marshall requires you.”

“This is my time-up, Noctis. Thank you for inviting me this morning, I had fun. Keep practicing your aim. I won’t be keeping you back anymore.”

“You are not keeping me…”

“And do send greetings to Luna on my behalf.”

Noctis frowned, but Regis was already out of the room for him to give any comeback.

* * *

> _Dear Noctis,_
> 
> _The winds of autumn are starting to set in over here, can you feel them too in Insomnia?_
> 
> _Beforehand, I apologize for taking so long to reply. ‘Oracle school’ with Gentiana has been arduous, and I dare say I can evenly start to feel myself growing stronger. Any luck gaining back your spar sessions? In a way, you and I are training together as future King and Oracle so without doubt, you will soon get them to agree on starting yours._
> 
> _If you notice my handwriting shifting, is because right now I’m sitting outdoors. I just finished praying at one of the inner shrines in the Ulwaat forest, and I’ll soon have to return to the manor to rest. Before that, I wished to write you an answer and send you this _↝

On the sidelines of the page, a tiny, bright yellow flower with oval petals stayed pressed against the paper.

> _I found it right at the door of the shrine when I got out, and I don’t think it was there when I arrived. That’s how I knew it had to be a signal of a good omen; my mother used to tell me flowers held special powers on their own. I decided to share this good omen with you in hope it brought luck on your way. Is not as neatly pressed this time, but I hope you can find it pleasing nonetheless._
> 
> _May the stars keep lighting your way forward._

* * *

> _Hi Luna._
> 
> _Don’t worry about the timing, I know how busy you are, and I don’t mind waiting a bit for your answers._
> 
> _Umbra really did it this time: he found me even though I was outside the citadel! It shouldn’t surprise me, but he really has a good nose. Today I got to play with my dad for a bit. I don’t think that was part of his schedule today. He is not as fast as before, so I scored some points against him. Could have done more if he hadn’t cheated half the time though._
> 
> _By the way, he says hi. I don’t know how, but dad saw Umbra when I sent him to wait in my room. I’m glad he didn’t ask any questions…_
> 
> _I reeeeally want to get started on my magic training Luna. I bet yours is really good already and Gentiana will graduate you from Oracle school real soon. I can’t have you leaving me behind! Maybe is just me… but I feel like today I made a little progress. I guess you are right, you and I _are_ connected and I will make them agree to train me. That’s what I want to believe anyway._
> 
> _Thank you for the flower, is really pretty. I should have taken one for you when I was at the park, but I had to go back in a hurry. This Malbuddy sticker will have to do today! _↝
> 
> _Be safe, Luna. I’m always happy to 'hear’ back from you._

* * *

As Noctis finished placing down his pen, two knocks ran from his bedroom door.

“Prince Noctis.” Clarus stepped in, before motioning to a boy to come in shortly after, who kept himself standing stiffly at Clarus’ side. He had seen the boy before around the castle, hadn’t he? Judging by his looks, he was strong, and could only be slightly older than himself.

“I introduced you two quite some time ago by chance, so I thought this would be a good time as any to start with the formalities.” The boy besides Clarus took a firm, military stance, typical of those training under the Crownsguard.

“Prince Noctis, I present to you Gladiolus, my son and pride. From now on, you will undergo your sword training with him, and he is to supervise you on your progress.”

Noctis stood from his desk and eyed the boy– _Gladiolus_, then Clarus, his disbelief apparent.

“Although he is also in training, he is to join the Crownsguard and become your Shield when the time is due, in the same way I am Shield of the current king. Is that clear?”

Gladiolus bowed curtly, and Noctis managed to nod back in acknowledgment.

“Y-eah.”

Clarus frowned a little but didn’t comment on his answer. “I hope you two grow to know each other and get along.” Clarus paused for a moment, as if assessing his next words. “If you are free of activities tomorrow, would you like to start your induction then, Noctis?”

Noctis only blinked once “Yes!”

“Then it is settled.” Clarus took a step back and bowed his head, followed by Gladiolus. “Have a good evening, highness.” Just when he was about to close the door behind him, Noctis found his voice.

“Clarus.” The man eyed the child, still standing by his desk, holding onto its surface. “Why now?”

_What changed?_

Gladiolus looked up to Clarus, and Clarus took a slow breath in.

“Your father. He commented to me that… that he thought you were ready to start again. He was… very firm in his conviction. You can thank him for this if you wish.”

And with that, Clarus and Gladiolus bowed their goodbye, closing his door.

Umbra came from under his desk, eyeing Noctis’ unmoving figure with worry. Licking his hand, Noctis came back to the present where he stared down at Umbra, got on his knees and gave the dog his biggest hug to date.

“Umbra…” Noctis voice came out as a high-pitched whine, muffled only by Umbra’s fur. In his arms, Umbra barked and snuggled closer. “Did you hear? I’m restarting my training tomorrow!”

It took 20 whole minutes, a sneak visit to Regis' office and a sneak visit to the gardens, for Umbra to be released from Noctis’ death grip.

* * *

> _Ps: You were right about the flower, Luna. Thank you again._
> 
> _Don’t be surprised if Umbra brings you a bouquet, is the least you deserve._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No Umbras were hurt in the making of this epilogue.  
It's finished! Now for good! Thank you for reading this 'till the end. Back when I started writing this I had no idea I would somehow include Gladio's appointment as shield to Noctis, but once it appeared the idea stuck and it seemed to fit, so here it is!  
Noctis' visit to Regis' office at the end was to give him a thank you. You can bet that ruffled Regis' feelings.
> 
> Happy Lunoct Celebration days!


End file.
